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To: TigerPaw who wrote (23337)	7/25/2003 9:23:10 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Bush Considers New Overhaul of Postwar Iraq Administration White House Aims to Address Concerns as Cost, Casualties Mount By Mike Allen and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, July 25, 2003; 7:05 PM President Bush is contemplating the second overhaul in three months of his post-war administration of Iraq, as the White House faces up to the enormity of the task and the need to demonstrate progress to maintain political support for the effort, administration officials said today. A series of polls has show U.S. voters becoming increasingly impatient at the prospects of large number of troops remaining in Iraq indefinitely, as the cost rises and guerrilla attacks continue inflicting military casualties long past the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. "We're confident of long-term success," a Bush aide said. "We need to show short-term success." L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, lobbied the Pentagon and Congress for more funds and personnel during a visit to Washington this week, officials said. As part of an effort to beef up the reconstruction, the White House is considering asking several major figures, including former secretary of state James A. Baker III, to help with specific tasks like seeking funds from other countries or helping restructure Iraq's debt. "A lot of different things are being discussed," a senior administration official said. "Nothing has happened yet." A senior official said Bush was very pleased with Bremer and that changes in the post-war administration, known as the coalition provisional authority, would be made only with his support. "This is a Bremer-driven process," the official said. An aide said Baker is on vacation, and he did not immediately return messages left at his law firm, Baker Botts LLP in Houston. Several administration officials predicted that Baker would not become involved, but said the White House might still seek "a Baker-like figure" to share duties with Bremer. The discussions reflect a growing realization within the administration that the post-war plan was inadequate and that simple patience, the White House's initial prescription, is not the answer. Bremer, who was saluted by Bush in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that progress has been made in restoring services and creating a government. But he said the effort could last for years. Bremer said privately during his meetings in Washington that the administration might need to appoint a high-level official to focus solely on restructuring Iraq's debt, a senior official said. In another augmentation of the post-war structure, the administration plans to name Reuben Jeffrey III, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who is now coordinating the federal aid aimed to help reconstruct lower Manhattan, as Washington-based coordinator for the Iraq reconstruction effort. One administration official said a division of duties for the administration of Iraq had been contemplated as far back as the contingency planning phases of the war. "We knew it would be difficult, but ground truth has given us a lot more to think about," the official said. If Bush called on Baker, 73, the assignment also would be the latest of a series of high-profile missions he has undertaken for the Bush family. Baker headed the Republican team during the Florida recount litigation after the disputed election of 2000. Against Baker's wishes, he agreed to manage President George H.W. Bush's reelection campaign in 1992. Baker was secretary of state in the first Bush administration, and treasury secretary and White House chief of staff under President Ronald Reagan. Baker is well-known in the Middle East from his travels as secretary of state. Administration officials said he would add stability to a process that has been much more chaotic than the administration had hoped. Baker's stature with foreign governments also could help the administration enlist more help in paying for the reconstruction. Bremer, although he was a career diplomat before becoming a private business consultant, lacks experience in the Arab world. Some administration officials said another figure might be better suited to selling neighboring countries on the U.S. approach to rebuilding Iraq. Bremer took charge as part of an abrupt overhaul in May that dismayed some native Iraqi leaders. Just a month after U.S. troops ended three decades of Baath Party rule, Bremer was sent to Baghdad to take over for Jay M. Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general who has been in charge of the reconstruction effort. Jeffrey, who is to become the Washington-based coordinator of the reconstruction effort, will become the administration's public face for the operation in Baghdad, including dealing with lawmakers and managing dealings with other party of the government. Officials said the White House concluded that, given the distance between Baghdad and Washington, Bremer needed someone senior in Washington who could navigate the bureaucracy and deal with Capitol Hill. Bush named Jeffrey special adviser for lower Manhattan development in March 2002. Jeffery had worked at Goldman for 18 years, living and working in Paris, London and New York and specializing in the financial services sector. He previously practiced corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Staff writers Vernon Loeb and Rajiv Chandrasekaran contributed to this report. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

To: TigerPaw who wrote (23337)	7/25/2003 9:36:03 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Where candles melt indoors July in Phoenix could be the hottest on record ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX, July 25 — It’s so hot windshields are shattering or falling out, dogs are burning their paws on the pavement and candles are melting indoors. People who live in the Valley of the Sun don’t usually sweat the summer heat. But this July is off the charts. About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. WITH THE AVERAGE high for the first three weeks of the month at 110 degrees, Phoenix is on track to have the hottest July since the National Weather Service starting keeping records in 1896. The average July high is 104. “Being in this heat is like walking through the hot lamps they use to bake on a car’s paint,” said Roger Janusz, who was walking laps inside a mall instead of outdoors Thursday morning. The low temperature on July 15 was 96 degrees, a record for the date. The high on July 16 was 117, making it the hottest day so far this year. It’s so hot that heat waves are creating turbulence for airplanes overhead, said Sky Harbor International Airport spokeswoman Deborah Ostreicher. SOME DOGS WEAR BOOTIES The searing pavement is burning the pads on dogs’ feet and causing the animals to suffer heat stroke. Susan Prosse, hospital manager at University Animal Hospital, said when the pavement burns dogs’ pads, they start dancing around. Some pet owners put booties on their dogs for their protection. Floral designer Brenda Zamora said her bouquets are dying in the delivery trucks en route to their destinations. “This heat is not good for people, pets, flowers - anything,” she said. It is especially hard on the sick and elderly. Dr. Donald Lauer of Phoenix has seen an increase in people with heat-related ailments this July. He said recently that when the air conditioning broke in an elderly woman’s motor home, she suffered heat stroke, passed out and swerved off the road. She was not seriously hurt. Advertisement “Very few points of the human body are designed to function at 107 and 108,” Lauer said. Cars don’t handle the heat well, either. EVERYONE IS GRUMPY Terry Tapp, owner of an upholstery repair shop, said some windshields shatter when the heat causes them to expand. Others fall out when the glue holding them in place separates. The heat is also cracking and peeling dashboards. “But the funniest thing you see with this heat is that you get the grumpiest people who come in that you have ever seen,” Tapp said. “They have no tolerance for anything.” Leslie Wanek, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the above-normal temperatures are due to a strong high-pressure system over the western United States, a late start to the usual summer rains and the heat-retaining effects of asphalt and concrete in this fast-growing metropolis of about 3 million. Many people who are not boating or swimming are just staying indoors. Josh Acton has no have air conditioning, but he said he finally bought four fans after it got so hot in his house that candles melted. What's on MSNBC TV About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. NO SYMPATHY FOR INMATES “It feels like you are in a furnace,” said James Zanzo’t, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1½ years. “It’s inhumane.” Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, is not sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told the inmates: “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths.” Sherman Reeves, a postal worker, set up a misting system - similar to the ones in the produce sections of grocery stores - in his delivery truck, which he said heats up like an oven. “You can feel yourself baking,” he said. John Augustyn switches the temperature reading on his office computer to Celsius. “It’s all a matter of being able to adjust your mind,” he said. © 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (23337)	7/25/2003 9:44:15 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

without the oil the attack would have happened elsewhere. In that sense, it is all about oil. Hmmm...still not buying the "all about oil" argument. Yes, as a first step toward hegemony, you need to secure your oil supply (Just ask Hitler). A glance at the Middle East map revels the geoploitical significance of Iraq. Simultaneously bordering Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, Iraq fulfills the neo-con dream of dominating the Middle East, in a way that no other country would. It's not that I'm trying to belittle the significance of oil. Rather, I'm just trying see how the "pieces" fit. Oil as a "lubricant" for the hegemony, sure. Oil having a primacy over hegemony? For the neo-cons that seem to be "running the show", that just isn't consistent with my observations. Ever watch Wolfowitz, when he discusses Iraq? This is a man laser focused on a mission. And that mission isn't primarily oil. Oil as a component of the mission, yes. But as a means, not an end. That doesn't mean that there aren't members of this admin for whom oil is the end. But are they driving policy like the neo-cons? Or are they part of that "convergence"? BTW, doesn't Libya have oil? JMO lurqer